FREE Game at EG Valued at $19.99 on Steam November 14th + FREE Game at EG Valued at $14.99 on Steam November 21st

[Paul Rudd]

FREE Game for TODAY, November 14th at the Epic Games store.

Valued at $19.99 on Steam here... Link it has 2,695 Overwhelmingly Positive reviews.

 

FREE Game for November 21st at the Epic Games store.

Valued at $14.99 on Steam here... Link it has 1,273 Very Positive reviews.

 

More and more EPIC every week at the Epic Games store! Best part, not spending a dime.

 

P.S. Subnautica just rolled out an update titled Big Little Update very recently for those that have already snagged the game for free from Epic back in December of 2018. Seems to be some pretty decent improvements/bug fixes. Read more about it here... Subnautica Big Little Update.

[JZStudios]

You're a little late today.

Messenger seems a pretty solid title. I didn't really look into it, but it's very 16 bit, unlike Gungeon or other pixel art games for example. Looks nice and has a bleepy soundtrack. So far it's not too platformy so I don't hate it, though that's possible it'll change. Using a controller you can jump with A, hit an object with X, and then jump again by hitting A. It's a system that I hate, I don't think it's very fluid so I hope they don't force you to use it. If they do I might switch things up to the triggers.

 

So subnautica is updating to a newer engine?

$1000 says they still won't implement the native support for surround sound.

[Paul Rudd]

3 hours ago, JZStudios said:

You're a little late today.

Had an early morning appointment in town. Took the day off for it and decided to do some shopping afterwards.

3 hours ago, JZStudios said:

it's very 16 bit, unlike Gungeon or other pixel art games for example.

Aren't you a fan of the Sega Genesis?

3 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Messenger seems a pretty solid title. Looks nice and has a bleepy soundtrack. So far it's not too platformy so I don't hate it, though that's possible it'll change. Using a controller you can jump with A, hit an object with X, and then jump again by hitting A. It's a system that I hate, I don't think it's very fluid so I hope they don't force you to use it. If they do I might switch things up to the triggers.

The luxury of remapping controls, gotta love PC gaming. I like the game a lot and I'm going to try and get it to run on my new budget laptop because it's a perfect contender. I can only play games with very little VRAM on it. Also a perfect game to play while traveling or in other rooms of the house. I can't seem to find how much VRAM is required to run The Messenger. Which is rare because I almost always find at least one site to show it. Usually the systemrequirementslab, gamedebate or gamesystemrequirements show them or at least show the GPU/CPU required to play which you can then check the specs for. Sure the requirements are never perfectly accurate but I like to have some sort of idea before installing games when space is involved. Just 64GB eMMC and 256GB MicroSD of storage on this laptop.

4 hours ago, JZStudios said:

So subnautica is updating to a newer engine?

Yes. It shows that it's still Unity and there's more future engine upgrades coming.

4 hours ago, JZStudios said:

$1000 says they still won't implement the native support for surround sound.

You're really all about the sound development a game has to offer aren't ya'? If native support for surround sound isn't implemented, does that mean surround sound features in headphones won't function either?

[JZStudios]

1 hour ago, Intransigent said:

Aren't you a fan of the Sega Genesis?

Not particularly. Never played it. My first console was an original Xbox my older brother gave me. My dad always had the idea that games are a complete waste of time and money, so I didn't really get into anything until a neighbor kid got a 360 and I later built my PC up. To date, the only other console I have is a PS4.

1 hour ago, Intransigent said:

The luxury of remapping controls, gotta love PC gaming. I like the game a lot and I'm going to try and get it to run on my new budget laptop because it's a perfect contender. I can only play games with very little VRAM on it. Also a perfect game to play while traveling or in other rooms of the house. I can't seem to find how much VRAM is required to run The Messenger. Which is rare because I almost always find at least one site to show it. Usually the systemrequirementslab, gamedebate or gamesystemrequirements show them or at least show the GPU/CPU required to play which you can then check the specs for. Sure the requirements are never perfectly accurate but I like to have some sort of idea before installing games when space is involved. Just 64GB eMMC and 256GB MicroSD of storage on this laptop.

Yeah, unfortunately I hated it on triggers too. I think it took too much trigger input to activate.

The game comes in at a whopping 300mb download size and uses 16bit assets, so I'm willing to argue it uses almost no Vram. Could probably play it on a Raspberry Pi perfectly fine.

1 hour ago, Intransigent said:

You're really all about the sound development a game has to offer aren't ya'? If native support for surround sound isn't implemented, does that mean surround sound features in headphones won't function either?

Well when you have a proper 5.1 setup, it's nice to get some use out of it. Movies are okay, but most still keep the vast majority of "important" sound sources on the front or center speakers, with the rear/surround being relegated to literal background noise if anything. Occasionally you'll get things like a helicopter flyover or a snapping twig in a forest behind you.

In games, everything has a 3d position, unless it's just a simple recording played back through the speakers, like the binaural recording for Hellblade that's stereo only. Though I've heard otherwise the surround implementation isn't that great anyways. In games like FEAR, The Witcher 3, or Horizon Zero Dawn, the surround placement is so well done it feels natural and really gives you significantly more detail about where things are around you. Horizon Zero Dawn is my favorite because there's so many different and interesting layers, but the Witcher 3 has a very natural sound, almost like the sounds are just straight recordings of metal clanging, people talking, doors closing, etc. I used to have my door behind me and every time I walked into a building and the door closed I thought someone came in my room.

 

Anyways, I hate the headphone "virtual surround sound" since it's a bastardization of all things holy and destroys audio quality for a slight increase in positional awareness. Any time someone with an actual surround system talks about poor surround implementation there's always 10 headphone users saying they don't know what the problem is, it sounds fine. Subnautica is straight up stereo only, but there's still people using VSS claiming it works just fine on their "surround sound" headsets.

https://steamcommunity.com/app/264710/discussions/0/358416640398257198/

 

As a side note, my buddy recently got Death Stranding and we were playing it on his big TV with a Dolby Atmos "surround sound" sound bar. Sounds like VSS played through stereo. It kind of works, and again you get a sense of where sounds are supposed to be coming from, but anything behind you just has a weird muffled sound to it.

[Paul Rudd]

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Not particularly. Never played it.

Please tell me you've at least heard of certain Sega Genesis games. You seriously have to play some. Even if they look or seem as stupid as can be, don't overlook them. Sure there will be duds but I'm telling you Sega games are some of the best games I've ever played. As you play them you can see and feel the influence they had on the games of today. There are hundreds of games and dozens to meet personal taste. There's even some really obscure and hidden gems just screaming to be played by the right gamers.

 

Just take a brief 10 minutes to watch some gameplay of random Sega games...

 

And here's a random list of 10 games explained in detail by a random fan...

 

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

My first console was an original Xbox my older brother gave me. My dad always had the idea that games are a complete waste of time and money, so I didn't really get into anything until a neighbor kid got a 360 and I later built my PC up. To date, the only other console I have is a PS4.

Wow, you've really got to get into emulation big time. It will open up a new world for you.

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

so I'm willing to argue it uses almost no Vram.

Amazing news. But you'd be surprised just how much VRAM these types of games need to function correctly.

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Well when you have a proper 5.1 setup, it's nice to get some use out of it.

Aha, I see. My setup is definitely not proper. But it is insanely loud and well equipped if you know what I mean. Car sound system bass capable of knocking things off shelves. And when I say car sound system bass, that's exactly what I mean. Not some terrible quality bass with any type of static or annoying noise coming from it. I mean purely smooth "THX" style bass. The treble is just as good too. I can't believe how long I've had it either. A good 15 years I'd say. I remember buying it from Bestbuy on an insane deal for like $375 instead of $899 at the time. I wonder how home sound systems are nowadays. Haven't looked into them in forever.

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

most still keep the vast majority of "important" sound sources on the front or center speakers, with the rear/surround being relegated to literal background noise if anything.

Sounds exactly like my setup right there.

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

In games, everything has a 3d position, unless it's just a simple recording played back through the speakers, like the binaural recording for Hellblade that's stereo only. In games like FEAR, The Witcher 3, or Horizon Zero Dawn, the surround placement is so well done it feels natural and really gives you significantly more detail about where things are around you. Horizon Zero Dawn is my favorite because there's so many different and interesting layers, but the Witcher 3 has a very natural sound, almost like the sounds are just straight recordings of metal clanging, people talking, doors closing, etc. I used to have my door behind me and every time I walked into a building and the door closed I thought someone came in my room.

Interesting. Verrry interesting.

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

Anyways, I hate the headphone "virtual surround sound" since it's a bastardization of all things holy and destroys audio quality for a slight increase in positional awareness. Any time someone with an actual surround system talks about poor surround implementation there's always 10 headphone users saying they don't know what the problem is, it sounds fine.

Have you by chance used a pair of high dollar Turtle Beaches?

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

my buddy recently got Death Stranding

I've been avoiding everything Death Stranding related. How is that game? Most people say it's a pretty big letdown and didn't live up to the hype.

10 hours ago, JZStudios said:

we were playing it on his big TV with a Dolby Atmos "surround sound" sound bar. Sounds like VSS played through stereo. It kind of works, and again you get a sense of where sounds are supposed to be coming from, but anything behind you just has a weird muffled sound to it.

I've been wanting to try out those sound bar things for quite a while now. Are they worth say, $50-$100? And what should I look for to be a feature on one in that budget range?

[JZStudios]

1 hour ago, Intransigent said:

 

 

 

1 hour ago, Intransigent said:

Wow, you've really got to get into emulation big time. It will open up a new world for you.

Eh. I also forgot the neighbor kid had a NES with Mario and Duck Hunt. Just always sucked at the retro games, with most of them being arcade style designed for you to die and pump in more quarters with no checkpoints. At best you had level codes. My buddy has a bunch of old systems and eventually wants to set up his office into a game room. I was looking into some emulators for PC since it's way simpler than trying to get 7 composite consoles to route through an AVR. There's a bunch of mods and hacks for the original consoles, but they're like $100 each and most don't really work that well. I'm hoping that since he's an EE he might get interested or invested enough to actually figure shit out and get a proper solution. It'd be cool to directly hook up an original Xbox or PS2 with HDMI or something.

 

1 hour ago, Intransigent said:

Aha, I see. My setup is definitely not proper. But it is insanely loud and well equipped if you know what I mean. Car sound system bass capable of knocking things off shelves. And when I say car sound system bass, that's exactly what I mean. Not some terrible quality bass with any type of static or annoying noise coming from it. I mean purely smooth "THX" style bass. The treble is just as good too. I can't believe how long I've had it either. A good 15 years I'd say. I remember buying it from Bestbuy on an insane deal for like $375 instead of $899 at the time. I wonder how home sound systems are nowadays. Haven't looked into them in forever.

I just have a small simple setup (the same as my buddy, he bought it first) that was $400 for the 5.1 AVR and 6 speakers. Though considering the size of the room and the setup, they're all about 3 feet from me so it does the job pretty well.

 

1 hour ago, Intransigent said:

I've been avoiding everything Death Stranding related. How is that game? Most people say it's a pretty big letdown and didn't live up to the hype.

I like it, my buddy so far seems to like it, but I'm assuming that most people will hate it. I'm rather fond of walking around game worlds and listening to shoegaze like Low Roar. If you're not into that, it's not for you. Sonically, it's very bass heavy... or his soundbars sub was turned up way too high. The thing I find interesting is you start somewhere around D.C. but it looks eerily like Iceland... which is where Kojima was scouting locations and went to a music store and heard Low Roar on the radio and then put 3 or 4 albums in the game. Of which, it doesn't seem like there's any option to listen to music in game. We haven't gotten very far, but it seems like it only plays during random moments or when you get close to new large cities in the main story deliveries. In normal deliveries and gameplay there's no music.

And once again, haven't gotten very far, so maybe it gets better explanations later, but a lot of the big questions of what the fuck is actually happening is hand-waved over. So they'll explain what and where the BB comes from, but not how it senses these dead dimension beings, or how that shit works. It could be explained later, I don't know yet. What is self evident and massively annoyed the Giant Bomb crew, was the somewhat obnoxious amount of constant references to bridges, links, ropes, strands, etc.

The story goes like this, your name is Bridges. The company you work for that connects people to the internet basically, is named Bridges. The Bridges logo has a web in it. The presidents name is Strand. There's constant references, images, and literal links, ropes, etc.

Meanwhile, unless I missed it, I have idea what year it is, or when the apocalyptic Death Stranding actually happened. It makes sense in Horizon Zero Dawn, and that order of events is what you spend the entire game trying to discover, but it's a very weird omission here. But again, it could be explained later. It's just weird that it isn't told.

 

The summation is; It's really a game that wears it's heart on it's sleeve. It's entirely about a man going around and trying to connect people together in a positive way to try and restructure mankind and get shit together. Ironically, because of the gameplay and Kojima's name being on it, it'll be massively divisive and people will talk shit about it. People either hate it and say Kojima is a pretentious piece of shit game director/creator and call anyone who likes it a Kojima fanboy, or you enjoy it for what it is and understand that it's a very simple message it's trying to convey.

2 hours ago, Intransigent said:

I've been wanting to try out those sound bar things for quite a while now. Are they worth say, $50-$100? And what should I look for to be a feature on one in that budget range?

I don't know. His was $2000. Along with his like... 75 inch TV. Which Death Stranding looks amazing on. Sound bars are for people who can't afford/don't have space for a big AVR setup and want something better than standard TV speakers.

[Paul Rudd]

On 11/14/2019 at 6:44 PM, JZStudios said:

Messenger seems a pretty solid title.

I'm hooked... The soundtrack. The game-play. The art design. The shop. The humor. The upgrades. Everything is perfect.

The 2:22 point of my 3rd video above really hit home for me. Not only the sound but what I'm doing totally reminds me of this level in one of my all-time favorite NES games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(1989)...

 

[JZStudios]

11 hours ago, Intransigent said:

I'm hooked... The soundtrack. The game-play. The art design. The shop. The humor. The upgrades. Everything is perfect.

Yeah, I've enjoyed it up until the ice stage and a later part with lasers. It still doesn't get too technical and platformy, but I think I'm on the final boss and you need to do the jump attack combo thing, and I just do not like it. I'm not sure how I feel about the boss otherwise. Other than that, I think 2 or 3 of the bosses just kind of have too much health so you do the same pattern like 5-7 times. It still comes out around 3-4 minutes for a boss fight, but the combat loop is pretty simple so it just feels a tad tedious.

11 hours ago, Intransigent said:

The 2:22 point of my 3rd video above really hit home for me. Not only the sound but what I'm doing totally reminds me of this level in one of my all-time favorite NES games, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles(1989)...

 

 

[Paul Rudd]

1 hour ago, JZStudios said:

you need to do the jump attack combo thing, and I just do not like it. I think 2 or 3 of the bosses just kind of have too much health so you do the same pattern like 5-7 times. the combat loop is pretty simple so it just feels a tad tedious.

Keep at it. There will be a moment where you will feel the power of mastering the tediousness. In that moment in time, you may feel the "need" to basically replay the game over and over. Possibly having friends take the helm from time to time. And you'll notice that you're literally mastering the game. Imagine doing this as a child. You seriously cannot put down the game.

 

Those dudes, Nolan and Troy, whoever they are, they're just like these two dudes, Craig and Bolen...

They're gamers with a YouTube channel that doesn't seem to get out of the 100k subscriber range to save its life because their humor only applies to a select few hundred thousand people, half of which don't even bother to subscribe.

[JZStudios]

3 hours ago, Intransigent said:

Those dudes, Nolan and Troy, whoever they are, they're just like these two dudes, Craig and Bolen...

Whoever they are? They're the two most prominent VA's in the game industry, going back the past 20 years almost. I mean, Nolan even mentioned in the video that he voiced Raphael in the TMNT movie, and I think the show.

 

Troy Baker 352 credits, and was the lead in more than a few major titles

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1684869/

Nolan North 409 credits, and ditto.

https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0636046/

[JZStudios]

So I've beaten the boss I was having trouble with. For starters he's way less "invincible" than he initially seems, but it's still a pretty bullshit fight and seems like it takes a lot more luck than the others. I looked up a video on it and everyone seems to agree that he's the hardest boss.

The interesting thing is, he would probably have been the second to last boss in a normal game like this, but instead the game opens up a little metroidvania style, and you start warping back in forth in time, which I think is supposed to be switching between a kind of 8-bit and 16-bit art style. I'm liking the game, but that ice level, laser grids, and bad boss nearly made me just quit.